The Apache web server’s mod_rewrite module is a powerful tool for rewriting URLs. It can catch you off guard in certain situations. For example, if you’re matching a URL to rewrite or redirect to another, you may find that any query string is unexpectedly passed along, too.
Catching a Query String
Consider the following rewrite rule:
RewriteRule ^search\.php$ http://www.example.com/search/ [L,R=301]
You would think that any requests to your old search page, search.php will now simply be redirected to your new URL at http://www.example.com/search/. They will, but even though the regular expression contains a $ at the end, which you might expect to exclude a query string, it WILL still be apended. So your destination URL would be something along the lines of http://www.example.com/search/?foo=bar
Removing a Query String
Once you realise WHY that query string is getting appended (because mod_rewrite handles query strings using RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING}) it’s straightforward to omit the query string from the redirect. You simply add a ? to the end of your destination URL.
So the rewrite rule now becomes this:
RewriteRule ^search\.php$ http://www.example.com/search/? [L,R=301]